192 Transactions. 



gradually dropped, and particles take their place, or variations of order 

 of words. 



The distinction which Max Muller drew between languages, classifying 

 them into isolating, agglutinative, and inflective, according as they had 

 no formal grammar, formal grammar with forms detachable from the stems, 

 and formal grammar with forms undetachable, is no real distinction. 

 There are few languages that have not at least traces of all three — isolation, 

 agglutination, and inflection- — either as vanishing habits or as neologisms. 

 It is the phonology, or range of sounds, that really distinguishes languages. 

 This cannot change — i.e., the organs of speech cannot change, except by 

 change of environment — i.e., by change of climate or change of educative 

 influences in the formative period of the organs of speech. The grammar 

 and the vocabulary are constantly changing by loss, or addition, or de- 

 velopment. Within the same zone of climate and physical environment 

 the sounds do not change except by change of mothers — i.e., by inter- 

 mixture of races linguistically different. 



But in the languages of the three regions referred to — Polynesia, 

 Melanesia, and Malaysia — there is a considerable similarity of particles. 

 This undoubtedly means that one language has saturated the languages 

 of all three regions. The great variety of languages in Malaysia bars that 

 as the region from which this language came ; the still greater variety in 

 Melanesia still more effectually bars that. There is an easy solution when we 

 turn to Polynesia, which has only on# language, though it has many dialects. 



But were this in conflict with the racial and cultural phenomena of the 

 three regions it would have to be abandoned, or considerably modified, or 

 conditioned. It is not, however. A visit to the Solomon Islands soon 

 convinces even the superficial, untrained observer that the fundamental 

 race of Melanesia is negroid : the woolly, tufty hair, the thick lips, the 

 flattened nostrils, the projecting muzzle, and the absence of calves on the 

 lower limbs are to be seen on all sides, quite apart from the dark colour 

 which gave the region its name. The predominance of the round head 

 and the low stature indicates the negritoes or pigmies as the branch of the 

 negroid race that first peopled Melanesia. But there is a considerable 

 infusion of tall stature, straight and wavy hair, light-brown and even 

 auburn hair, European features, and light-brown colour ; especially in the 

 eastern islands of the Solomons are the last three apparent. In the western 

 Solomons and the Bismarck Archipelago, though the colour is close to black, 

 the hair is often straight or wavy, and the profile is what we call Semitic, 

 whilst tall stature is not infrequent. There can be no hesitation in homing 

 this peculiar western Caucasianism to the west — i.e., to Malaysia or the Asiatic 

 Continent- — and in homing the light-haired Caucasianism of the eastern islands 

 to Polynesia. In Malaysia, again, we have, as the name implies, a strong 

 admixture of Mongoloidism with the primeval negroidism and the secondary 

 Caucasianism. When we turn to Polynesia we find the purest racial elements 

 — fundamental Caucasianism, with a slight admixture of negroidism. 



The culture exhibits similar phenomena. Polynesia is the realm of the 

 patriarchate ; the pivot of relationship is the father. Right through 

 Melanesia and Malaysia the matriarchate is the system ; the mother is the 

 pivot of relationship : there is therefore no history, no preservation of the 

 records of the past, no tradition, the mother being only a private person, 

 and having no public events in her life to hand on the memory of to 

 posterity ; the sons as well as the daughters belong to her and her kin, 

 and do not count any relationship with the father and his relatives. The 



